Tiffani Thiessenis embracing every part of herself as she enters into another decade of her life.
The cookbook author and actress opened up about her mindset around turning 50 during an appearance on Wednesday’s episode ofThe Jennifer Hudson Show, admitting that she’s learned to “be happy” with every part of herself — including “the wrinkles that I’ve earned.”
“I say earned because I think I’ve earned them,” Thiessen told talk show hostJennifer Hudson. “They’re from all the tears and laughter — both! And I’m happy about that.”
Thiessen’s birthday is Jan. 23. “I can’t believe it. I actually really cannot believe it. I cannot believe I’m going to be turning 50 very soon,” she said of the impending milestone. “I feel great. I actually feel more settled than I did in my 40s. Turning 40 was a bigger deal. I’m like, ‘Ooh, I’m going to be 50!’ I still can’t believe it.”
Tiffani Thiessen.Chris Millard/Warner Bros.

Chris Millard/Warner Bros.
Asked what she was focusing on for this next chapter, the mother of two — who sharesson Holt Fisher, 3, and daughterHarper, 13,with husbandBrady Smith— said it’s all about “being the best 50-year-old I [can] be.”
She explained: “Right now I’m really trying to be good [about my health] — not that I haven’t been in the past, because health has always been very important (and I mean body health and mental health). But I think in my 40s, my time was really for my children. We give so much to our kids, my child was giving so much to my child, you know, that kind of stuff. And now since they’re kids are older, they don’t need me so much as when they were little, it’s a little more me time. It’s about me.”
“You know, I’m just trying to be very healthy about approaching 50 with a good mindset,” she added. “I’ve taken my health very seriously.”

Thiessen’s second cookbook,Here We Go Again, was published in September. The book focuses on how to avoid food waste and “get our food to last,” which Thiessen says she learned from her mother. “This book is…a love letter to my childhood,” she noted during a visit to dietitian Shira Barlow’s podcastGood Instinctsthat month.
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She went on to admit to feeling the “added pressure of what people were saying” about her appearance back then. But now as she ages, “I think people will say things, you know, and maybe expect me to look a certain way, yes, but I mean, it’s just not realistic. I can only age the way I’m going to age, right?”
“I’m the best I can be and I’m taking care of myself and doing things that I know will benefit the outside exterior of myself that people are seeing," said Thiessen. “But yeah, those people don’t know what’s happening on the inside, right? Because that’s what actually helps the outside.”
The Jennifer Hudson Showairs weekdays in syndication (check local listings).
source: people.com